John: Hi there! Welcome to On The Town from a very interesting part of south London. I’m John, with me Oliver. We’re at Crystal Palace.

Oliver: 哦，水晶宫。

John: At Crystal Palace one of Britain’s best loved football clubs used to play. It’s home to major athletics events, and there used to be an amazing palace.

Oliver: 不过，在我们开始今天节目之前要先澄清一件事，那就是现在的水晶宫根本就不是一座宫殿。 It isn’t a palace at all.

John: But there used to be a palace here in south London.

Oliver: What did it look like John?

John: Well the Crystal Palace got its name because it was a building made almost entirely of glass.

Oliver: 一座玻璃造的建筑，真是太让人吃惊了。Tell us something about its history John. 它是什么时候建造的，在这里又发生过什么事情呢？

John: Well, it was built for a very specific purpose. A great exhibition, in fact The Great Exhibition of 1851.

Oliver: It must have been quite a spectacle. 在玻璃和钢铁造就的宫殿里展出着最新的工艺作品和现代设计。那会是一个多么辉煌的景象啊。A glass and iron palace.

John: Well we’ve been doing some research, and we’ve found an account written by a young woman who visited the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. She was impressed too and her name is Eloise.

Oliver: Eloise 是当时一个前去看展览的小姐，她震惊于水晶宫的壮丽。下面是她在1851年的描述。

Crystal Palace, 1851. Today must have been one of the most marvellous of my life. Mama and Papa took me to the most delightful, beautiful, and simply thrilling buildings I have yet had cause to visit: "The Crystal Palace". It is the largest glass structure ever built in the world to this very date, and it houses the most prestigious spectacle of our age: "The Great Exhibition". Dear Queen Victoria herself decided upon its theme; the very latest modern artistic works and designs. Ah! This wonderful age in which we now live, one can but dream what the next excitement will be!

Eloise, visitor to the Great Exhibition in 1851

John: Amazing! Eloise was really impressed with the Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition. She said the building was "delightful", "beautiful", and "thrilling".

Oliver: 令人愉快的， delightful; 美丽的，beautiful; 和让人震惊的，thrilling.

John: There was also another lovely phrase that Eloise used. She said the Great Exhibition of 1851 was "the most prestigious spectacle of our age", meaning it was the most important event that was happening in her lifetime.

Oliver: A great way to describe it. Eloise 说这个1851年的展览是她那个年代最负盛名的展览，the most prestigious spectacle.

John: Now, in 1936 those wonderful buildings met a terrible fate.

Oliver: 水晶宫被烧毁了!这就是这座美丽建筑的命数。That was its fate. 真是太伤感了。

John: We’ve found this amazing recording from the archives.

Oliver: John 专门查看了它们的档案。The archives, 而且找到了水晶宫被烧毁时的记录。

The Crystal Palace is completely destroyed. In the most spectacular night fire in living memory, the world famous glass building that has dominated Sydenham Hill for 82 years is enveloped from end to end in a sea of flames. Sweeping along the inflammable wood flooring, the blaze soon had the middle transept in its grip. Inside half an hour it was clear that the Crystal Palace was doomed.

BBC news archive report

John: What a tragedy, the palace was completely destroyed by fire.

Oliver: And it was the most spectacular fire in living memory. 这可能是某些人能够记住的最厉害的大火了。

John: So that was the end of the great Crystal Palace.

John: Well after Crystal Palace burnt down, it became home to a great football club of the same name "Crystal Palace", but it’s also been the host of some great athletics events.

Oliver: 不少英国盛大的田径比赛都在水晶宫举行，这里也曾经是水晶宫足球俱乐部的主场。还记着范志毅和孙继海吗? 他们就是在水晶宫俱乐部开始他们的英国足球之旅的。

John: Well the palace has got quite a history hasn’t it and if you’re in London it’s worth a visit. Time to go now. Bye for now.

Oliver: 再见。